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signed JL GEROME (lower right)

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Boussod Valadon et Cie., Paris, 1892 (acquired directly from the artist)
Max Senior & Son, Cincinnati, 1895 (acquired from the above)
Schneider & Gabriel
Sale, Parke Bernet, New York, February 26-27, 1947, lot 51
Renaissance Galleries (acquired at the above sale)
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Gerald M. Ackerman, The Life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme with a Catalogue raisonné, London, 1986, pp. 294-295, no. 516 (illustrated) and 2000 edition, no. 516, pp. 366-367 (illustrated)
CATALOGUE NOTE

Gérôme was fascinated by the simplicity and directness of Islamic piety, which he observed on his many travels to the Near and Middle East. He conveyed these lasting impressions in the many mosque scenes that he painted throughtout his career.

Gérôme painted many mosque interiors with worshippers, sometimes lined up for the daily call to prayer, often alone or in small groups. Either Gérôme did not know that the prayers and the change of postures during communal prayers are done in unison, or else he mixed the various postures together to give an anthology of prayer positions to edify Western viewers. Perhaps, out of respect, or due to restrictions, he never entered a mosque during prayer time. The prayer positions used in his paintings seem to derive from two plates in Edward Lane's The Manners and the Customs of Modern Egyptians, 1836 (he copied figures and motifs from other plates in this important book). The various postures explained in the text are illustrated in two rows, one beside the other. Perhaps this gave Gérôme the idea that they could all happen simultaneously. Gérôme's English was minimal and he was unlikely to have fully understood the text.

The present picture belongs to a series of a dozen mosque interiors, one of which features figures in practically the same interior, but for some differences in the flooring (see Ackerman, no. 515). The changes in the floor show that Gérôme's use of photography was much the same as his use of his own drawings; the photos furnished perspective and outlines of the structure, but he freely rearranged parts of the architecture according to the organization of light, and the requirements of composition.

We are grateful to Gerald M. Ackerman for providing this catalogue note.